1 


NEUTRAL  NATIONS 
AND  THE  WAR 


BY 


JAMES   BRYCE 

AUTHOR  OF  "the  AMERICAN  COMMO>a\TEALTH," 

•'SOUTH  AMERICA;  OBSERVATIONS  AND  IMPRESSIONS," 

ETC 


THE   MACMILLAN   COMPANY 

1914 

PRICE,  TWENTY  CENTS  NET 


NEUTRAL  NATIONS  AND  THE  WAR 


f^y^ 


THE  MACMILLAN   CO.  OF  CANADA,  LTD. 

TORONTO 

THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY 

NEW  YORK   •    BOSTON   •    CHICAGO 
DALLAS   •    ATLANTA    •    SAN   FRANCISCO 

MACMILLAN  &  CO.,  Limited 

LONDON    •    BOMBAY   •    CALCUTTA 
MELBOURNE 


NEUTRAL  NATIONS 
AND  THE  WAR 


BY 


JAMES   BRYCE 

AUTHOR  OF  "the  AMERICAN  COMMONWEALTH," 

'south  America;  observations  and  impressions, 

ETC. 


^eto  gorfe 

THE    MACMILLAN    COMPANY 

1914 


3^ 


NEUTRAL  NATIONS  AND  THE  WAR 


300429 


NEUTRAL   NATIONS   AND 
THE  WAR 

The  present  war  has  had  some  unexpected  consequences. 
It  has  called  the  attention  of  the  world  outside  Germany 
to  some  amazing  doctrines  proclaimed  there,  which  strike 
at  the  root  of  all  international  morality,  as  well  as  of  all 
international  law,  and  which  threaten  a  return  to  the 
primitive  savagery  when  every  tribe  was  wont  to  plunder 
and  massacre  its  neighbors. 

These  doctrines  may  be  found  set  forth  in  the  widely 
circulated  book  of  General  von  Bernhardi,  entitled  "Ger- 
many and  the  Next  War,"  published  in  1911,  and  pro- 
fessing to  be  mainly  based  on  the  teachings  of  the  fa- 
mous professor  of  history,  Heinrich  von  Treitschke. 

To  readers  in  other  countries — and,  I  trust,  to  most 
readers  in  Germany  also — they  will  appear  to  be  an  out- 
burst of  militarism  run  mad,  the  product  of  a  brain  intoxi- 
cated by  the  love  of  war  and  by  overweening  national 
vanity. 

They  would  have  deserved  little  notice,  much  less  refu- 
tation, but  for  one  deplorable  fact — viz.,  that  action  has 
recently  been  taken  by  the  Government  of  a  great  nation 
(though,  as  we  hope  and  trust,  without  the  approval  of 
that  nation)  which  is  consonant  with  them,  and  seems  to 
imply  a  belief  in  their  soundness. 

This  fact  is  the  conduct  of  the  German  Imperial  Gov- 
ernment, in  violating  the  neutrality  of  Belgium,  which 

1 


2       NEUTRAL  NATIONS  AND  THE  WAR 

Prussia,  iis  well  as  Great  Britain  and  France,  had  sol- 
emnly guaranteed  by  a  treaty  (made  in  1839  and  renewed 
in  1870)  ;  in  invading  Belgium  when  she  refused  to  allow 
her  armies  to  pass,  although  France,  the  other  belligerent, 
had  promised  not  to  enter  Belgium;  and  in  treating  the 
Belgian  cities  and  people,  against  whom  she  had  no  cause 
of  quarrel,  with  a  harshness  unprecedented  in  the  history 
of  modern  European  warfare. 

What  are  these  doctrines^  I  do  not  for  a  moment  at- 
tribute them  to  the  learned  class  in  Germany,  for  whom 
I  have  profound  respect,  recognizing  their  immense  serv- 
ices to  science  and  learning;  nor  to  the  bulk  of  the  civil 
administration,  a  body  whose  capacity  and  uprightness 
are  known  to  all  the  world;  and  least  of  all  to  the  Ger- 
man people  generally.  That  the  latter  hold  no  such 
views  appears  from  General  Bernhardi's  own  words,  for 
he  repeatedly  complains  of,  and  deplores  the  pacific  ten- 
dencies of,  his  fellow-countrymen.* 

Nevertheless,  the  fact  that  the  action  referred  to,  which 
these  doctrines  seem  to  have  prompted,  and  which  cannot 
be  justified  except  by  them,  has  been  actually  taken,  and 
has  thus  brought  into  this  war  Great  Britain,  whose  in- 
terests and  feelings  made  her  desire  peace,  renders  it 
proper  to  call  attention  to  them  and  to  all  that  they  in- 
volve. 

I  have  certainly  no  prejudice  in  the  matter,  for  I  have 
been  one  of  those  who  for  many  years  labored  to  pro- 
mote good  relations  between  Germans  and  Englishmen, 
peoples  that  ought  to  be  friends,  and  that  never  before 
had  been  enemies,  and  I  had  hoped  and  believed  till  the 

*  See  pp.  10-14  of  English  translation,  and  note  the  phrase, 
"Aspirations  for  peace  seem  to  poison  the  soul  of  the  German 
people." 


NEUTRAL  NATIONS  AND  THE  WAR       3 

beginning  of  August  last  that  there  would  be  no  war,  be- 
cause Belgium  neutrality  would  be  respected. 

Nor  was  it  only  for  the  sake  of  Britain  and  Germany 
that  the  English  friends  of  peace  sought  to  maintain  good 
feeling.  We  had  hoped,  as  some  leading  German  states- 
men had  hoped,  that  a  friendliness  with  Germany  might 
enable  Britain,  with  the  cooperation  of  the  United 
States  (our  closest  friends),  to  mitigate  the  long  antag- 
onism of  Germany  and  of  France,  with  whom  we  were 
already  on  good  terms,  and  to  so  improve  their  relations 
as  to  secure  the  general  peace  of  Europe. 

Into  the  causes  which  frustrated  these  efforts  and  so 
suddenly  brought  on  this  war  I  will  not  enter.  Many 
others  have  dealt  with  them.  Moreover,  the  facts,  at  least 
as  we  in  England  see  and  believe  them,  and  as  the  docu- 
ments seem  to  prove  them  to  be,  appear  not  to  be  known 
to  the  German  people,  and  the  motives  of  the  chief  actors 
are  not  yet  fully  ascertained. 

One  thing,  however,  I  can  confidently  declare:  It  was 
neither  commercial  rivalry  nor  jealousy  of  German  power 
that  brought  Britain  into  the  field.  Nor  was  there  any 
hatred  in  the  British  people  for  the  German  people,  nor 
any  wish  to  break  their  power.  The  leading  political 
thinkers  and  historians  of  England  had  given  hearty 
sympathy  to  the  efforts  made  by  the  German  people  (from 
1815  to  1866  and  1870)  to  attain  political  unity,  as 
they  had  sympathized  with  the  parallel  efforts  of  the 
Italians. 

The  two  peoples,  German  and  British,  were  of  kindred 
race,  and  linked  by  many  ties.  In  both  countries  there 
were  doubtless  some  persons  who  desired  war,  and  whose 
writings,  apparently  designed  to  provoke  it,  did  much  to 
misrepresent  the  general  national  sentiment.     But  these 


4       NEUTRAL  NATIONS  AND  THE  WAR 

persons  were,  as  I  believe,  a  small  minority  in  both  coun- 
tries. 

So  far  as  Britain  was  concerned,  it  was  the  invasion  of 
Belgium  that  arrested  all  efforts  to  avert  war,  and  made 
the  friends  of  peace  themselves  join  in  holding  that  the 
duty  of  fulfilling  their  treaty  obligations  to  a  weak  State 
was  paramount  to  every  other  consideration. 

I  return  to  the  doctrines  set  forth  by  General  von  Bern- 
hardi,  and  apparently  accepted  by  the  military  caste  to 
which  he  belongs.  Briefly  summed  up,  they  are  as  fol- 
lows. His  own  words  are  used,  except  when  it  becomes 
necessary  to  abridge  a  lengthened  argument : — 

War  is  in  itself  a  good  thing.  "It  is  a  biological  neces- 
sity of  the  first  importance"  (p.  18). 

"The  inevitableness,  the  idealism,  the  blessing  of  war, 
as  an  indispensable  and  stimulating  law  of  development, 
must  be  repeatedly  emphasized"  (p.  37). 

"War  is  the  greatest  factor  in  the  furtherance  of  cul- 
ture and  power." 

"Efforts  to  secure  peace  are  extraordinarily  detrimental 
as  soon  as  they  influence  politics"  (p.  28). 

"Fortunately  these  efforts  can  never  attain  their  ulti- 
mate objects  in  a  world  bristling  with  arms,  where  a 
healthy  egotism  still  directs  the  policy  of  most  countries. 
'God  will  see  to  it,'  says  Treitschke,  'that  war  al- 
ways recurs  as  a  drastic  medicine  for  the  human  race'  " 

(p-  36). 

"Efforts  directed  toward  the  abolition  of  war  are  not 
only  foolish,  but  absolutely  immoral,  and  must  be  stigma- 
tized as  unworthy  of  the  human  race"  (p.  34). 

Courts  of  arbitration  are  pernicious  delusions.  "The 
whole  idea  represents  a  presumptuous  encroachment  on 
the  natural  laws  of  development  which  can  only  lead  to 


NEUTRAL  NATIONS  AND  THE  WAR       5 

the  most  disastrous  consequences  for  humanity  gener- 
ally"  (p.  34). 

"The  maintenance  of  peace  never  can  be  or  may  be  the 
goal  of  a  policy"  (p.  25). 

"Efforts  for  peace  would,  if  they  attained  their  goal, 
lead  to  general  degeneration,  as  happens  everywhere  in 
Nature,  where  the  struggle  for  existence  is  eliminated" 

(P-  35). 

Huge  armaments  are  in  themselves  desirable.     "They 

are    the   most   necessary   precondition   of   our   national 

health"  (p.  11). 

"The  end  all  and  be  all  of  a  State  is  power,  and  he 
who  is  not  man  enough  to  look  this  truth  in  the 
face  should  not  meddle  with  politics"  (Quoted  from 
Treitschke  Politik)  (p.  45). 

"The  State's  highest  moral  duty  is  to  increase  its 
power"  (pp.  45-6). 

"The  State  is  justified  in  making  conquests  whenever 
its  own  advantage  seems  to  require  additional  territory" 

(p.  46). 

"Self-preservation  is  the  State's  highest  ideal,"  and 
justifies  whatever  action  it  may  take,  if  that  action  be 
conducive  to  the  end.    Might  is  Right. 

The  State  is  the  sole  judge  of  the  morality  of  its  own 
action.  It  is,  in  fact,  above  morality,  or,  in  other  words, 
whatever  is  necessary  is  moral. 

"Recognized  rights  (i.e.,  treaty  rights)  are  never  abso- 
lute rights;  they  are  of  human  origin,  and  therefore  im- 
perfect and  variable.  There  are  conditions  in  which 
they  do  not  correspond  to  the  actual  truth  of  things; 
in  this  case  the  infringement  of  the  right  appears 
morally  justified"  (p.  49).  In  fact,  the  State  is  a 
law  to  itself. 


6       NEUTRAL  NATIONS  AND  THE  WAR 

"Weak  nations  have  not  the  same  right  to  live  as  the 
powerful  and  vigorous  nation"  (p.  34). 

"Any  action  in  favor  of  collective  humanity  outside  the 
limits  of  the  State  and  nationality  is  impossible"  (p.  25). 

These  are  startling  propositions,  though  propounded 
as  practically  axiomatic.  They  are  not  new,  for  twenty- 
two  centuries  ago  the  Sophist  Thrasymachus  in  Plato's 
Republic  argued  (Socrates  refuting  him)  that  Justice  is 
nothing  more  than  the  advantage  of  the  Stronger — i.e.. 
Might  is  Right.* 

The  most  startling  among  them  is  the  denial  that  there 
are  any  duties  owed  by  the  State  to  Humanity,  except 
that  of  imposing  its  own  superior  civilization  upon  as 
large  a  part  of  humanity  as  possible,  and  the  denial  of 
the  duty  of  observing  treaties.  Treaties  are  only  so  much 
paper. 

To  modern  German  writers  the  State  is  a  much  more 
tremendous  entity  than  it  is  to  Englishmen  or  Americans. 
It  is  a  supreme  power  with  a  sort  of  mystic  sanctity,  a 
power  conceived  of,  as  it  were,  self-created,  a  force  alto- 
gether distinct  from  and  superior  to,  the  persons  who 
compose  it. 

But  a  State  is,  after  all,  only  so  many  individuals  or- 
ganized under  a  Government.  It  is  no  wiser,  no  more 
righteous,  than  the  human  beings  of  whom  it  consists, 
and  whom  it  sets  up  to  govern  it. 

Has  the  State,  then,  no  morality,  no  responsibility'? 

If  it  is  right  for  persons  united  as  citizens  into  a  State 
to  rob  and  murder  for  their  collective  advantage  by  their 
collective  power,  why  should  it  be  wicked  for  the  citi- 
zens as  individuals  to  do  so*?    Does  their  moral  responsi- 

*  Plato  laid  down  that  the  end  for  which  a  State  exists  is 
Justice. 


NEUTRAL  NATIONS  AND  THE  WAR    ,    7 

bility  cease  when  and  because  they  act  together  *?  Most 
legal  systems  hold  that  there  are  acts  which  one  man  may 
lawfully  do  which  become  unlawful  if  done  by  a  number 
of  men  concpiring  together.  But  now  it  would  seem  that 
what  would  be  a  crime  in  persons  as  individuals  is  high 
policy  for  those  persons  united  in  a  State. 

Is  there  no  such  thing  as  a  common  humanity  *?  Are 
there  no  duties  owed  to  it^  Is  there  none  of  that  "decent 
respect  to  the  opinion  of  mankind"  which  the  framers  of 
the  Declaration  of  Independence  recognized;  no  sense  that 
even  the  greatest  States  are  amenable  to  the  sentiment  of 
the  civilized  world'?  "^ 

Let  us  see  how  these  doctrines  affect  the  smaller  and 
weaker  States  which  have  hitherto  lived  in  comparative 
security  beside  the  Great  Powers. 

They  will  be  absolutely  at  the  mercy  of  the  stronger. 
Even  if  protected  by  treaties  guaranteeing  their  neutrality 
and  independence,  they  will  not  be  safe,  for  treaty  obliga- 
tions are  worthless  "when  they  do  not  correspond  to  facts" 
— i.e.^  when  the  strong  Power  finds  that  they  stand  in  its 
way.  Its  interests  are  paramount. 
/  If  a  State  has  valuable  minerals,  as  Sweden  has  iron, 
and  Belgium  coal,  and  Rumania  oil,  or  if  it  has  abun- 
dance of  water  power,  like  Norway,  Sweden,  and  Switzer- 
land, or  if  it  holds  the  mouth  of  a  navigable  river  the  up- 
per course  of  which  belongs  to  another  nation,  the  great 

*  General  Bernhardi  refers  approvingfly  to  Machiavelli  as 
"the  first  who  declared  that  the  kej^note  of  every  policy  was  the 
advancement  of  power."  The  Florentine,  however,  was  not  the 
preacher  of  doctrines  with  which  he  sought,  like  the  General,  to 
edify  his  contemporaries.  He  merely  took  his  Italian  world  as 
he  saw  it.  He  did  not  attempt  to  buttress  his  doctrines  by  false 
philosophy,  false  history,  and  false  science. 


8       NEUTRAL  NATIONS  AND  THE  WAR 

State  may  conquer  and  annex  that  small  State  as  soon  as 
it  finds  that  it  needs  the  minerals,  or  the  water  power,  or 
the  river  mouth. 

It  has  the  Power,  and  Power  gives  Right.  The  inter- 
ests, the  sentiments,  the  patriotism  and  love  of  independ- 
ence of  the  small  people  go  for  nothing 

Civilization  has  turned  back  upon  itself,  culture  is  to 
expand  itself  by  barbaric  force.  Governments  derive 
their  authority  not  from  the  consent  of  the  governed,  but 
from  the  weapons  of  the  conqueror. 

Law  and  morality  between  nations  have  vanished. 
Herodotus  tells  us  that  the  Scythians  worshipped  as  God 
a  naked  sword.  That  is  the  deity  to  be  installed  in  the 
place  once  held  by  the  God  of  Christianity,  the  God  (^f 
righteousness  and  mercy. 

States,  mostly  despotic  States,  have  sometimes  applied 
parts  of  this  system  of  doctrine,  but  none  has  proclaimed 
it.  The  Romans,  conquerors  of  the  world,  were  not  a 
scrupulous  people,  but  even  they  stopped  short  of  these 
principles.  Certainly  they  never  set  them  up  as  an  ideal. 
Neither  did  those  magnificent  Teutonic  Emperors  of  the 
Middle  Ages  whose  fame  General  von  Bernhardi  is  fond 
of  recalling.  They  did  not  enter  Italy  as  conquerors, 
claiming  her  by  the  right  of  the  strongest.  They  came 
on  the  faith  of  a  legal  title,  which,  however  fantastic  it 
may  seem  to  us  to-day,  the  Italians  themselves — and,  in- 
deed, the  whole  of  Latin  Christendom — admitted.  Dante, 
the  greatest  and  most  patriotic  of  Italians,  welcomed  the 
Emperor  Henry  the  Seventh  into  Italy,  and  wrote  a  fa- 
mous book  to  prove  his  claims,  vindicating  them  on  the 
ground  that  he,  as  the  heir  of  Rome,  stood  for  Law  and 
Right  and  Peace.    The  noblest  title  which  those  Emper- 


NEUTRAL  NATIONS  AND  THE  WAR       9 

ors  chose  to  bear  was  that  of  Imperator  Pacificus.  In  the 
Middle  Ages,  when  men  were  always  fighting,  they  ap- 
preciated the  blessings  of  war  much  less  than  does  Gen- 
eral Bernhardi,  and  they  valued  peace,  not  war,  as  a 
means  to  civilization  and  culture.  They  had  not  learned 
in  the  school  of  Treitschke  that  peace  means  decadence 
and  war  is  the  true  civilizing  influence. 

The  doctrines  above  stated  are  (as  I  have  tried  to  point 
out)  well  calculated  to  alarm  the  small  States  which  prize 
their  liberty  and  their  individuality,  and  have  been  thriv- 
ing under  the  safeguard  of  treaties.  But  there  are  other 
considerations  affecting  those  States  which  ought  to  ap- 
peal to  men  in  all  countries,  to  strong  nations  as  well  as 
weak  nations. 

The  small  States,  whose  absorption  is  now  threatened, 
have  been  potent  and  useful — perhaps  the  most  potent 
and  useful — factors  in  the  advance  of  civilization.  It  is 
in  them  and  by  them  that  most  of  what  is  most  precious 
in  religion,  in  philosophy,  in  literature,  in  science,  and  in 
art  has  been  produced. 

The  first  great  thoughts  that  brought  man  into  a  true 
relation  with  God  came  from  a  tiny  people,  inhabiting  a 
country  smaller  than  Denmark.  The  religions  of  mighty 
Babylon  and  populous  Egypt  have  vanished :  the  religion 
of  Israel  remains  in  its  earlier  as  well  as  in  that  latter 
form  which  has  overspread  the  world. 

The  Greeks  were  a  small  people,  not  united  in  one 
great  State,  but  scattered  over  coasts  and  among  hills  in 
petty  city  communities,  each  with  its  own  life,  slender  in 
numbers,  but  eager,  versatile,  intense.  They  gave  us  the 
richest,  the  most  varied,  and  the  most  stimulating  of  all 
literatures. 

When  poetry  and  art  reappeared,  after  the  long  night 


lo     NEUTRAL  NATIONS  AND  THE  WAR 

of  the  Dark  Ages,  their  most  splendid  blossoms  flowered 
in  the  small  republics  of  Italy. 

In  modern  Europe  what  do  we  not  owe  to  little  Switz- 
erland, lighting  the  torch  of  freedom  600  years  ago,  and 
keeping  it  alight  through  all  the  centuries  when  despotic 
monarchies  held  the  rest  of  the  European  Continent;  and 
what  to  free  Holland,  with  her  great  men  of  learning  and 
her  painters  surpassing  those  of  all  other  countries  save 
Italy'? 

So  the  small  Scandinavian  nations  have  given  to  the 
world  famous  men  of  science,  from  Linnaeus  downward, 
poets  like  Tegner  and  Bjornson,  dauntless  explorers  like 
Fridthiof  Nansen.  England  had,  in  the  age  of  Shake- 
speare, Bacon,  and  Milton,  a  population  little  larger  than 
that  of  Bulgaria  to-day.  The  United  States,  in  the  days 
of  Washington  and  Franklin  and  Jefferson  and  Hamilton 
and  Marshall,  counted  fewer  inhabitants  than  Denmark 
or  Greece. 

In  the  two  most  brilliant  generations  of  German  litera- 
ture and  thought,  the  age  of  Kant  and  Lessing  and 
Goethe,  of  Hegel  and  Schiller  and  Fichte,  there  was  no 
real  German  State  at  all,  but  a  congeries  of  principalities 
and  free  cities,  independent  centers  of  intellectual  life,  in 
which  letters  and  science  produced  a  richer  crop  than  the 
two  succeeding  generations  have  raised,  just  as  Britain, 
also,  with  eight  times  the  population  of  the  year  1600, 
has  had  no  more  Shakespeares  or  Miltons. 

No  notion  is  more  palpably  contradicted  by  history 
than  that  relied  on  by  the  school  to  which  General  Bern- 
hardi  belongs,  that  "culture" — literary,  scientific,  and 
artistic — flourishes  best  in  great  military  States.  The 
decay  of  art  and  literature  in  the  Roman  World  began 
just  when  Rome's  military  power  had  made  that  world 


NEUTRAL  NATIONS  AND  THE  WAR      ii 

one  great  and  ordered  State.  The  opposite  view  would  be 
much  nearer  the  truth;  though  one  must  admit  that  no 
general  theory  regarding  the  relations  of  art  and  letters  to 
governments  and  political  conditions  has  ever  yet  been 
proved  to  be  sound.* 

The  world  is  already  too  uniform,  and  is  becoming 
more  uniform  every  day.  A  few  leading  languages,  a 
few  forms  of  civilization,  a  few  types  of  character,  are 
spreading  out  from  the  seven  or  eight  greatest  States  and 
extinguishing  the  weaker  languages,  forms,  and  types. 

Although  the  great  States  are  stronger  and  more  popu- 
lous, their  peoples  are  not  necessarily  more  gifted,  and 
the  extinction  of  the  minor  languages  and  t)^pes  would  be 
a  misfortune  for  the  world's  future  development. 

We  may  not  be  able  to  arrest  the  forces  which  seem  to 
be  making  for  that  extinction,  but  we  certainly  ought  not 
to  strengthen  them.  Rather  we  ought  to  maintain  and 
defend  the  smaller  States,  and  to  favor  the  rise  and 
growth  of  new  peoples.  Not  merely  because  they  were 
delivered  from  the  tyranny  of  Sultans  like  Abdul  Hamid 
did  the  intellect  of  Europe  welcome  the  successively  won 
liberations  of  Greece,  Servia,  Bulgaria,  and  Montenegro ; 
it  was  also  in  the  hope  that  those  countries  would  in  time 
develop  out  of  their  present  crudeness  new  types  of  cul- 
ture, new  centers  of  productive  intellectual  life. 

General    Bernhardi    invokes    History,    the    ultimate 

*  General  Bernhardi's  knowledge  of  current  history  may  be 
estimated  by  the  fact  that  he  assumes  (i)  that  trade  rivalry 
makes  a  war  probable  between  Great  Britain  and  the  United 
States,  (2)  that  he  believes  the  Indian  princes  and  peoples 
likely  to  revolt  against  Britain  should  she  be  involved  in  war, 
and  (3)  that  he  expects  her  self-governing  Colonies  to  take 
such  an  opportunity  of  severing  their  connection  with  her! 


12     NEUTRAL  NATIONS  AND  THE  WAR 

court  of  appeal.    He  appeals  to  Caesar.    To  Csesar  let  him 
go.    Die  Weltgeschichte  ist  das  Weltgericht.'^ 

History  declares  that  no  nation,  however  great,  is  en- 
titled to  try  to  impose  its  type  of  civilization  on  others. 
No  race,  not  even  the  Teutonic  or  the  Anglo-Saxon,  is 
entitled  to  claim  the  leadership  of  humanity.  Each  peo- 
'ple  has  in  its  time  contributed  something  that  was  dis- 
tinctively its  own,  and  the  world  is  far  richer  thereby  than 
if  any  one  race,  however  gifted,  had  established  a  perma- 
nent ascendancy. 

V  We  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  race  do  not  claim  for  ourselves, 
any  more  than  we  admit  in  others,  any  right  to  dominate 
by  force  or  to  impose  our  own  type  of  civilization  on  less 
powerful  races.  Perhaps  we  have  not  that  assured  con- 
viction of  its  superiority  which  the  school  of  General 
Bernhardi  expresses  for  the  Teutons  of  North  Germany. 
We  know  how  much  we  owe,  even  within  our  own  islands, 
to  the  Celtic  race.  And  though  we  must  admit  that  peo- 
ples of  Anglo-Saxon  stock  have,  like  others,  made  some 
mistakes  and  sometimes  abused  their  strength,  let  it  be 
remembered  what  have  been  the  latest  acts  they  have 
done  abroad. 

The  United  States  have  twice  withdrawn  their  troops 
from  Cuba,  which  they  could  easily  have  retained.  They 
have  resisted  all  temptations  to  annex  any  part  of  the  ter- 
ritories of  Mexico,  in  which  the  lives  and  property  of  their 
citizens  were  for  three  years  in  constant  danger.  So 
Britain  also,  six  years  ago,  restored  the  amplest  self-gov- 
ernment to  the  two  South  African  Republics  (having  al- 
ready agreed  to  the  maintenance  on  equal  terms  of  the 
Dutch  language),  and  the  citizens  of  those  Republics, 
which  were  in  arms  against  her  thirteen  years  ago,-  have 

*  World  History  is  the  World-tribunal. 


NEUTRAL  NATIONS  AND  THE  WAR      13 

now  spontaneously  come  forward  to  support  her  by  arms, 
under  the  gallant  leader  who  then  commanded  the  Boers. 
And  I  may  add  that  one  reason  why  the  princes  of  India 
have  rallied  so  promptly  and  heartily  to  Britain  in  this 
war  is  because  for  many  years  past  we  have  avoided  an- 
nexing the  territories  of  those  princes,  allowing  them  to 
adopt  heirs  when  successors  of  their  own  families  failed, 
and  leaving  to  them  as  much  as  possible  of  the  ordinary 
functions  of  government. 

It  is  only  vulgar  minds  that  mistake  bigness  for  great- 
ness, for  greatness  is  of  the  Soul,  not  of  the  Body.  In 
the  judgment  which  history  will  hereafter  pass  upon  the 
forty  centuries  of  recorded  progress  toward  civilization 
that  now  lie  behind  us,  what  are  the  tests  it  will  apply  to 
determine  the  true  greatness  of  a  peopled 

Not  population,  not  territory,  not  wealth,  not  military 
power.  Rather  will  history  ask :  What  examples  of  lofty 
character  and  unselfish  devotion  to  honor  and  duty  has  a 
people  given  ^  What  has  it  done  to  increase  the  volume 
of  knowledge?  What  thoughts  and  what  ideals  of  per- 
manent value  and  unexhausted  fertility  has  it  bequeathed 
to  mankind?  What  works  has  it  produced  in  poetry, 
music,  and  the  other  arts  to  be  an  unfailing  source  of 
enjoyment  to  posterity? 

The  small  peoples  need  not  fear  the  application  of 
such  tests. 

The  world  advances  not,  as  the  Bernhardi  school  sup- 
pose, only  or  even  mainly  by  fighting.  It  advances  mainly 
by  thinking  and  by  a  process  of  reciprocal  teaching  and 
learning,  by  a  continuous  and  unconscious  cooperation  of 
all  its  strongest  and  finest  minds. 

Each  race  has  something  to  give,  each  something  to 


14     NEUTRAL  NATIONS  AND  THE  WAR 

learn;  and  when  their  blood  is  blended  the  mixed  stock 
may  combine  the  gifts  of  both. 

The  most  progressive  races  have  been  those  who  com- 
bined willingness  to  learn  with  a  strength  which  enabled 
them  to  receive  without  loss  to  their  own  quality,  retain- 
ing their  primal  vigor,  but  entering  into  the  labors  of 
others,  as  the  Teutons  who  settled  within  the  dominions 
of  Rome  profited  by  the  lessons  of  the  old  civilization. 

Let  me  disclaim  once  more  before  I  close  any  intention 
to  attribute  to  the  German  people  the  principles  set  forth 
by  the  school  of  Treitschke  and  Bernhardi,  their  hatred  of 
peace  and  arbitration,  their  disregard  of  treaty  obliga- 
tions, their  scorn  for  the  weaker  peoples. 

We  in  England  would  feel  an  even  deeper  sadness  than 
weighs  upon  us  now  if  we  could  suppose  that  such  prin- 
ciples had  been  embraced  by  a  nation  whose  thinkers 
have  done  so  much  for  human  progress  and  who  have 
produced  so  many  shining  examples  of  Christian  saintli- 
ness. 

But  when  those  principles  have  been  ostentatiously  pro- 
claimed, when  a  peaceful  neutral  country  which  the 
other  belligerent  had  promised  to  respect  has  been  invaded 
and  treated  as  Belgium  has  been  treated,  and  when  at- 
tempts are  made  to  justify  these  deeds  as  incidental  to  a 
campaign  for  civilization  and  culture,  it  becomes  neces- 
sary to  point  out  how  untrue  and  how  pernicious  such 
principles  are. 

What  are  the  teachings  of  history,  history  to  which 
General  Bernhardi  is  fond  of  appealing?  That  war  has 
been  the  constant  handmaid  of  tyranny  and  the  source  of 
more  than  half  the  miseries  of  man.  That  although  some 
wars  have  been  necessary— wars  of  defense  against  ag- 
gression, or  to  succor  the  oppressed — ^most  wars  have  been 


NEUTRAL  NATIONS  AND   IHE  WAR      15 

needless  or  unjust.    That  the  mark  of  an  advancing  civ- 
ilization  has   been    the    substitution   of   friendship    for 
hatred  and  of  peaceful  for  warlike  ideals.     That  small 
peoples  have  done  and  can  do  as  much  for  the  common 
good  of  humanity  as  large  peoples.    That  Treaties  must  . 
be  observed,  for  what  are  they  but  records  of  national . 
faith  solemnly  pledged,  and  what  could  bring  mankind  ^ 
more  surely  and  swiftly  back  to  that  reign  of  violence  and 
terror  from  which  it  has  been  slowly  rising  for  the  last^ 
ten  centuries  than  the  destruction  of  trust  in  the  plighted ' 
faith  of  nations  ? 

No  event  has  brought  out  that  essential  unity  which 
now  exists  in  the  world  so  forcibly  as  this  war  has  done, 
for  no  event  has  ever  so  affected  every  part  of  the  world. 
Four  continents  are  involved — the  whole  of  the  Old 
World — and  the  New  World  suffers  grievously  in  its 
trade,  industry,  and  finance.  Thus  the  whole  world  is 
interested  in  preventing  the  recurrence  of  such  a  calam- 
ity; and  there  is  a  general  feeling  throughout  the  world 
that  the  causes  which  have  brought  it  upon  us  must  be 
removed. 

We  are  told  that  armaments  must  be  reduced,  that  the 
baleful  spirit  of  militarism  must  be  quenched,  that  the 
peoples  must  everywhere  be  admitted  to  a  fuller  share  in 
the  control  of  foreign  policy,  that  efforts  must  be  made  to 
establish  a  sort  of  League  of  Concord — some  system  of 
international  relations  and  reciprocal  peace  alliances  by 
which  the  weaker  nations  may  be  protected,  and  under 
which  differences  between  nations  may  be  adjusted  by 
courts  of  arbitration  and  conciliation  of  wider  scope  than 
those  that  now  exist. 

All  these  things  are  desirable.    But  no  scheme  for  pre-  • 
venting  future  wars  will  have  any  chance  of  success  unless  . 


i6     NEUTRAL  NATIONS  AND  THE  WAR 

.  it  rests  upon  the  assurance  that  the  States  which  enter 
'.  into  it  will  loyally  and  steadfastly  abide  by  it,  and  that 

each  and  all  of  them  will  join  in  coercing  by  their  over- 
•whelming  united  strength  any  State  which  may  disregard 
'the  obligations  it  has  undertaken. 

•  The  faith  of  treaties  is  the  only  solid  foundation  on 
•  which  a  Temple  of  Peace  can  rest. 


T 


HE  following  pages  contain  advertisements  of  books 
by  the  same  author  or  on  kindred  subjects. 


VISCOUNT  BRYCE'S  WORKS 

New  Edition.    Just  Published 

SOUTH  AMERICA:  Observations  and  Impressions 
By  JAMES  BRYCE 

A  new,  revised  edition  of  Viscount  Bryce's  illuminating  book,  "the 
most  comprehensive  work  that  has  been  written  on  the  history^and  pres- 
ent condition  of  the  South  American  Republics."  —  San  Francisco 
Chronicle. 

"Mr.  Bryce's  remarkable  book." — Boston  Herald. 

"One  of  the  most  fascinating  books  of  travel  in  our  language." — 

London  Daily  Mail. 

Colored  Maps*     Cloth  coders,  gilt  top.     $2,50  net* 
^y  the  Same  Author 

UNIVERSITY  AND  HISTORICAL  ADDRESSES 

An  important  selection  of  the  addresses  of  historical  and  permanent  inter- 
est commemorating  some  person  or  event  delivered  by  Ambassador  Bryce, 
throughout  the  United  States  during  the  past  six  years.  The  diversified 
range  of  this  valuable  work  is  shown  by  a  few  of  the  leading  topics:  The 
Character  and  the  Career  of  Lincoln;  Beginnings  of  Virginia;  The  Landing 
of  the  Pilgrims;  What  University  Instruction  May  Do  to  Provide  Intellec- 
tual Pleasure  for  Later  Life;  Thomas  Jefferson;  The  Art  of  St.  Gaudens; 
Recent  History  of  Missions;  Address  on  the  U.  S.  Constitution;  etc. 

Blue  cloth.     Gilt  top.     $2.00  net. 

THE  AMERICAN   COMMONWEALTH 

"Written  with  full  knowledge  by  a  distinguished  Englishman  to  dispel 

vulgar  prejudices  and  to  help  kindred  people  to  understand  each  other 

better.  Professor  Bryce's  work  is  in  a  sense  an  embassy  of  peace;  a  message 

of  good- will  from  one  nation  to  another." — The  Times,  London. 

I^e'uised  and  entargecf  edition.    In  i^wo  volumes. 

Cloth.     Price,  per  set,  $4.00  net. 

THE  HOLY  ROMAN  EMPIRE 

"The  treatise  as  it  stands  to-day  is  more  than  ever  an  impressive  illus- 
tration of  literary  evolution.  That  a  prize  composition  should  grow  into 
such  a  monument  of  erudition  is  difficult  to  realize." — The  Outlook. 

Re'bised  and  enlarged  edition.     $t .  50. 

STUDIES  IN  CONTEMPORARY  BIOGRAPHY 

"It  is  long  since  we  have  had  occasion  to  welcome  a  collection  of  essays 
so  attractive  on  the  score  of  subject  and  of  treatment  as  will  be  found  in 
the  volume  entitled  'Studies  in  Contemporary  Biography.'  " — N.  Y.  Sun. 

Cloth.     $3.00  net. 


THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY 

Publishers  64-66  FIFTH  AVENUE  New  York 


THE  GREAT  WAR  IN  ALL  ITS  PHASES 

The  following  books,  covering  all  sides  of  the  war,  make  up  a  small  yet 
complete  reference  library,  touching  on  the  history,  policy,  military 
strength  and  tactics,  and  the  geographical  peculiarities  of  the  various 
powers  involved.  Supplementing  these  works  are  many  books  of  a  more 
general  character  showing  the  effect  of  war  on  property,  commerce,  and 
trade,  and  treating  such  topics  as  the  Far  East  Question  and  international 
law. 

The  Case  of  Belgium  in  the  Present  War 

F apery  i2mo,  $0.25  net 

An  account  of  the  violation  of  the  neutrality  of  Belgium  and  of  the  laws 
of  war  on  Belgian  territory,  published  for  the  Belgian  delegates  to  the 
United  States. 


Why  Britain  is  at  War 


(By  Sir  EDWARD  COOK 

Paper,  i2mo,  $0.10  net 

Set  out  in  brief  form,  from  the  Diplomatic  Correspondence  and  Speeches  of  the  Min- 
sters. 

Adams,  George  B.   The  Growth  of  the  French  Nation.    Maps           .      .  i2mo,  $1.25  net 
Altham,  (Major-General)  E.  A.    Principles  of  War.    Vol.  I.    With  maps 

bound  separately 8mo,  $3-SO  net 

Bastable,  C.  F.   Theory  of  International  Trade.    4th  Ed i2mo,  $1.00  net 

Beca,  (Colonel).  A  Study  of  the  Development  of  Infantry  Tactics     .      .  i2mo,  $  .75  net 

Bethell,  (Colonel)  H.  A.    Modem  Artillery  in  the  Field     ....  8mo,  $2.50  net 

Buxton,  Noel.     With  the  Bulgarian  Staflf i2mo,  $1.25  net 

CoxE,  W.    History  of  the  House  of  Austria.    Portraits.    4  vols,  each  i2mo,  $1.00  net 

Cross,  Arthur  Lyon.   A  History  of  England  and  Greater  Britain.    Maps  8mo,  $2.50  net 

Denison,  (Colonel)  Gage  T.    The  Struggle  for  Imperial  Unity  .      .      .  8mo,  $3.00  net 

A  History  of  Cavalry  from  the  Earliest  Times.     2d  Ed.    .      .  8mo,  S3. 00  net 

DiLKE,  (Sir)  Charles.     Greater  Britain 8mo,  $1.10  net 

Ford,  Edward,  and  Home,  Gordon.    England  Invaded     ....  8mo,  $2.00  net 

Garnett,  Lucy  M.  J.     Home  Life  in  Turkey i2mo,  I1.7S  net 

Gow,  William.     Marine  Insurance i2mo,  $1.25  net 

Hassall,  Arthur.     European  History  (476-1910) i2mo,  I2.25  net 

Henderson,  E.  Flagg.     A  Short  History  of  Germany 8mo,  J2.S0  net 

Hengelmuller,  (Baron)  Ladislas.   Hungary's  Fight  for  National  Exist- 
ence.   Maps.    With  Introductions  by  the  Rt.  Hon.  James  Bryce  and 

Colonel  Roosevelt 8mo,  $3.25  net 

Hershey,  Amos  S.    The  Essentials  of  International  Public  Law     .      .  8mo,  I3.00  net 

James,  Herman  Gerlach.    Principles  of  Prussian  Administration  x2mo,  li.so  net 


.4-4*  jL 


Latifi,  Alma.    Effects  of  War  on  Property 8mo,  1 1.50  net 

Lawrence,  Thomas  J.    A  Handbook  of  Public  International  Law.    8th 

Ed.  rev i6mo,  $  .75  net 

War  and  Neutrality  in  the  Far  East 8mo,  $1.10  net 

Lowell.  A.  Lawrence.    The  Government  of  England.    Rev.  ed.  2  vols.  8mo,  I4.00  net 

LvDE,  Lionel  W.    The  Continent  of  Europe 8mo,  I2.00  net 

The  Balkan  Peninsula.     Maps i2mo,  I1.40  net 

Making  of  Nations  Series — 

France.     By  C,  Headlam 8mo,  $2.00  net 

Germany.     By  A.  W.  Hollant) 8mo,  $2.00  net 

Marriott,  J.  A.  R.    The  Remaking  of  Modern  Europe  (1789-1878)     .  i2mo,  $  .75  net 

•  Makers  of  Modem  Italy i2mo,  $  .50  net 

Maurice,  (Sir)  Frederic.    Russo-Turkish  War  (1877)'     Maps     .      .  i2mo,  $1.60  net 

Ogg,  Frederick  A.    Social  Progress  in  Contemporary  Europe   .            .  i2mo,  $1.50  net 

The  Government  of  Europe 8mo,  $3.00  net 

Ormond,  S.  W.  T.    Peeps  at  Belgium.    Col.  Ill i2mo,  $  .55  net 

Pattison,  D.     Leading  Figures  in  European  History i2mo,  J1.60  net 

Phillips,  W.  A.    Modern  Europe  (1815-1909) i2mo,  $1.60  net 

Pratt,  S,  C.     Saarbruck  to  Paris  (1870).     Maps i2mo,  $1.60  net 

Rappaport,  (Dr.)  Angelo  S.    Home  Life  in  Russia.    Ill 8mo,  $1.75  net 

Remington,  (Major-General)  M.  F.    Our  Cavalry  (British)    ....  Smo,  $1.50  net 

Richard,  Ernst.    History  of  German  Civilization Smo,  li.so  net 

RoYCE,  JosiAH.     War  and  Insurance ■ 

Sedgwick,  (Capt.)  F.  R.   The  Russo-Japanese  War— First  Period — The 

Concentration.     Maps i2mo,  $1.60  net 

The  Campaign  in  Manchuria  (1904-5).     2  vols.     Maps       .      .      .  i2mo,  $3.20  net 

Shaw,  Stanley.     William  of  Germany.     Frontispiece 8mo,  $2.50  net 

Sidgwick,  (Mrs.)  Alfred.    Home  Life  in  Germany.    Ill i2mo,  $1.50  net 

SiME,  J.     Geography  of  Europe i2mo,  $  .80  net 

Smyth,  W.     Lectures  on  Modern  History i2mo,  li.oo  net 

Spaight,  J,  N.     War  Rights  on  Land Smo,  $3.50  net 

Aircraft  in  War Smo,  $2.00  net 

Statesman's  Year  Book.    Statistical  and  Historical  Annual  of  the  States 

of  the  World,  1914 i2mo,  $3.00  net 

Stobart,  (Mrs.)  St.  Clair.    War  and  Women:  From  Experience  in  the 

Balkans  and  Elsewhere.     Ill i2mo,  li.so  net 

Wallis,  B.  C.    a  Geography  of  the  World.    Ill i2mo,  $  .90  net 

Weale,  B,  L.  Putnam.    The  Coyiing  Struggle  in  Eastern  Asia.    2d  Ed. 

Ill Smo,  I3.S0  net 

Manchu  and  Muscovite  (1903) Smo,  $3  00  net 

The  Reshaping  of  the  Far  East      2  vols.     Ill Smo,  $6.00  net 

The  Conflict  of  Colour i2mo,  J2.00  net 

The  Truce  in  the  Far  East  and  its  Aftermath $3-50  net 


IMPORTANT  FICTION  HAVING  A  DIRECT  BEARING  ON  THE  PRESENT  WAR 

Luther,  Mark  Lee.     The  Sovereign  Power.     Ill i2mo,  $1.30  net 

Wells,  H.  G.     The  War  in  the  Air.     Ill i2mo,  $1.50  net 

Zola,  Emile.    The  Downfall i2mo,  $1.50  net 


THE  MACMILLAN   COMPANY 

Publishers  64-66  FIFTH  AVENUE  New  York 


THIS  BOO^  XS  DUE  ON  THE  LAST  T^&    ul 

■^  BELOW  ,1S^ 


Wc^^Mensive  and  cetlatnly  the  clearest  and  most  illuminating  work 
yet  been  written  on  the  history  and  present  conditions  of  the  South 
A  merican  Republics."— San  Francisco  Chronicle. 


U  DAY  USE 

^  RETURN  TO  DESK  FROM  WHICH  BORROWED 

LOAN  DEPT. 

RENEWALS  ONLY— TEL.  NO.  642-3405 

This  book  is  due  on  the  last  date  stamped  below,  or 

on  the  date  to  which  renewed. 

Renewed  books  are  subject  to  immediate  recall. 


APR  1 0  1969  0  0 


RECEIVED 


APR     8'fiQ'llAH 


LOAN  DfiPT. 


^^isi  ^^im^mi   \ 


LD  21A-40m-2,'69 
(J6057S10J476 — A-32 


General  Library 
University  of  California 


npressions 

::e 

mpire,**  etc. 
r  pottpaid,  $2.70 


1  observer  of 
ined  to  rank 


to  give  more 

,  and  learning 

of  the  topic 


a  interest  to 
s  book  would 
om  the  State 


will  enhance 
commentator 
Jiick  Record. 

guage.  ...  A 
tes." — London 


XL  the  pen  of 
ias  witnessed. 
Id  find  a  place 


New  York 


U.C   BERKELEY  LIBRARIES 


CDS1157bOS 


•     ..3- 


^  j-^^r 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 


